320 BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
44 The ends of the ground rope are made fast on each side by a few 
turns round the back of the trawl-head just above the shoe, and the 
rope rests on the ground throughout the entire curve; the fish, there- 
fore, have no chance of escape at either the sides or bosom of the net, 
and their only outlet, when once the beam has passed over them is in 
front, so that they must dart forward in the direction in which the net 
is moving to enable them to get clear of it. The object of making the 
ground rope of old material is that it may break in case of getting foul 
of rocks or any chance obstruction which may be met with on the gen- 
erally smooth ground, where a trawl can only be worked with advan- 
tage. If in such contingency the ground rope were strong and good, 
the least mischief likely to ensue would be anchoring of the vessel by 
her trawl, involving great loss of time in clearing it, and resulting prob- 
ably in breaking the beam, and other damage; but as these nets are 
used in deep water, where there is always more or less sea or swell, the 
great danger to be feared when the net gets foul is the parting of the 
warp by which the trawl is towed, and the consequent loss of the whole 
gear. If, however, the ground rope give way, the only damage likely 
to result is in the under part of the net behind it being torn open; the 
whole apparatus then comes away clear, when it can be hoisted up 
overhauled, and the netting and rope repaired. It was formerly the 
custom to weight the ground rope to insure its close working over the 
bottom, and it is still sometimes the practice at Yarmouth to use short 
lengths of chain for that purpose, secured at each end by rope-yarns to 
the ground rope, so as to be easily torn away in case of getting foul. 
The French trawlers also use chain on the ground rope, but in those 
we have examined a great length of chain has been suspended in short 
festoons and secured by iron rings over the rope, and therefore not 
easily detached. Our west-country fishermen find that by giving a large 
sweep to the ground rope an old hawser is heavy enough without other 
addition than the small rope with which it is covered or rounded.” 1 
The cod-end of a trawl-net (at least such as are used on the large 
smacks from Grimsby) is made of double twine, and the meshes are 
smaller than in the other sections of the apparatus, which are made of 
single twme. Four sizes of meshes are used in the large trawl-nets, in- 
creasing from 1J inches at the cod-end to 4 inches in the back, while 
the underneath part of the net is generally made of twine a size larger 
than is used for the back. 2 
The material used in the construction of the net is small manilla stuff 
about the size of marline, and essentially the same as the 44 lobster-twine” 
that New England fishermen employ for a number of purposes. The 
nets are coated with coal tar. 
A piece of old rope, say 2 J to 3 inches in size, called the 44 cod-line ” 
by the Grimsby fishermen, somewhat longer than the trawl, and having 
1 Deep-Sea Fisliiug, etc., pp. 59-60. 
2 “ The size mesh of the trawl,” writes Ansell, “ is much smaller as we go south of 
Yarmouth. About Hull the mesh is about 3£ inches square down to G inches.” 
